The premium smartphone market witnessed two significant launches this month, giving lots of reasons to shoppers to upgrade to a new handset this year. Oppo launched its premium F1 Plus in India the same day Vivo announced its own V3 Max with competitive features.

The battle between the two China-based manufacturers comes at a time when the smartphone market is booming in India. Both phones have a premium appeal in terms of design, features and specifications. Combine that with an attractive price, and Oppo F1 Plus and Vivo V3 Max are bound to make a lasting impression in the price-sensitive Indian market.

Design and display

Oppo F1 Plus and Vivo V3 Max flaunt the same metallic bodies that give the handsets a premium look and feel. Both the phones are almost identical with slight differences. The fingerprint scanner in the V3 Max appears at the back and the 3.5mm headphone jack sits at the top of the V3 Max. In the F1 Plus, the fingerprint scanner is integrated within the Home button and the headphone jack is at the bottom alongside the speaker and microUSB port.

Both phones have the same 5.5-inch Full HD display. The F1 Plus' Super AMOLED display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4 while the V3 Max has a 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass on top of its IPS display.

Camera

Oppo F1 Plus is being touted as the "Selfie Expert" so it is evident the handset's camera will deliver great results. The F1 Plus sports a capable 16-megapixel front-facing Hi-Light camera with 120-degree wide-angle lens, PDAF, ISOCELL technology and f/2.0 aperture. The camera is equipped with features such as selfie panorama and Beautify 4.0. The primary camera has a 13MP sensor with f/2.2 aperture, LED flash and TrueBright Image Signal Processor (ISP) engine.

On the other hand, Vivo V3 Max offers a 13MP primary camera with LED flash, HDR and PDAF. On the front side, there's an 8MP snapper for selfies.

Clearly, we can expect the Oppo F1 Plus to outperform its rival in this category.

Vivo V3 Max is powered by a 64-bit 1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 octa-core processor, which is backed by 4GB RAM and Adreno 510 GPU. Like the Oppo F1 Plus, the V3 Max is also based on Android 5.1 Lollipop, but runs its own Funtouch OS. In terms of storage, the V3 Max offers 32GB space with microSD card support up to 128GB.

Once again, Oppo F1 Plus gains an edge over Vivo V3 Max in terms of storage. Performance of both phones can be compared only in a review, but the specs can ensure a lag-free user experience.

Battery

Battery is one of the key components of a smartphone in the performance-driven market. Oppo and Vivo both address the short-lived battery issues with reliable battery packs. The F1 Plus packs a 2850mAh battery equipped with VOOC flash charge technology, which charges 0-75 percent in just 30 minutes. The handset also has a smart power saving mode to extend the battery life of the F1 Plus to match rivals with bigger batteries.

The V3 Max packs a slightly bigger 3000mAh unit with Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0 technology. It is unclear how long the handset can run on a single charge.

Fingerprint scanner

Both phones are equipped with one-touch fingerprint scanning to unlock the device. The F1 Plus has its fingerprint scanner integrated within the physical home button at the bottom of the display, while the V3 Max has it at the back. As we review the F1 Plus, we find the fingerprint scanner to be almost accurate and extremely fast in identifying the registered impression.

We haven't had the chance to test the V3 Max's fingerprint scanner, but the company claims to offer speedy fingerprint recognition.

Price

Oppo F1 Plus is priced at Rs. 26,990 while the Vivo V3 Max costs Rs. 23,980. The difference in price is justified by the F1 Plus since it offers an upgraded camera, twice the storage and a wide portfolio of camera features for enhanced photography.